JetBeats take listeners back to 50s, primal rock 'n' roll

Friday

Jan 17, 2014 at 3:00 PM

By John SinkevicsLocalSpins.com

Picture “the Cavern Club ethos” of the early Beatles in Liverpool.The skinny ties. The leather jackets. The punk-styled, raucous rock energy.Take it from Holland’s Justin “Fatbody” Rutkauskas: The best part about playing drums for The JetBeats “is bringing people back in time and giving them the experience of really feeling these songs as it would have been. Most people don't expect it to be as fast and intense as it is.”In fact, the West Michigan trio’s retro-rock approach — from that classic narrow-tie garb to the vintage gear — can be traced directly to the impact that the Fab Four has had on band members, who formed The JetBeats a little more than a year ago after guitarist, singer and frontman Morgan May Moallemian put out a Craigslist call for musicians.Bassist David Jimenez, formerly of The Boss Mustangs, credits his musician father for introducing him to The Beatles at a young age.“This is how I learned how to play actually to Beatles records and things like that,” says Jimenez.“Playing-wise, I wanted to be in a band that played specifically this music. I think it’s a small miracle that I found a couple of other guys that are close to my age that want to play this kind of music.”Moallemian, the senior member of the band at age 45, started his record collection with The Beatles’ "Rock ’n’ Roll Music, Vol. 2."“I’ve always liked that kind of music,” he explains. “It just has really good energy and despite being so big for so long, it’s kind of a lost musical form. We’ll play shows now where people will ask, ‘What kind of music is that?’ Well, that’s just rock ’n’ roll.”For The JetBeats, that rock ’n’ roll specifically gets defined as ’60s beat music, British Invasion gems and ’50s classics by Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, aka “a lot of covers that the Beatles used to cover back in the early days. We kind of mined all that.”The band also writes its own songs that reflect the sound of that era, and is preparing to head into Grand Rapids’ Goon Lagoon studio to record its debut album.A typical night with The JetBeats features “a pretty wide gamut of that early British beat music,” including The Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Searchers, The Kinks, The Who and The Hollies, as well as the ’50s music of America’s rock pioneers. Indeed, other than its originals, the band won’t play songs released after 1965, even though none of the members was even alive at that time.To broaden that retro experience on a single night, The JetBeats will team up on Friday with Grand Rapids’ White Rabbit — which covers music from the late ’60s through the ’70s — for a “’60s/’70s Rock ’n’ Roll Blowout” that encourages fans to dress in the fashion of that time period during the special show at Grand Rapids’ Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill.Moellemian says The JetBeats aim to channel the early days of The Beatles when they played packed venues in Hamburg, Germany, and The Cavern Club in Liverpool, England, before becoming an international sensation. “It’s just super high energy, raucous rock ’n’ roll,” he says.Jimenez views it as the roots of garage rock and punk. “The Beatles were a punk band when they were playing at The Cavern,” he says. “They wore leather jackets and leather suits, (playing) two-minute songs, fast, furious.”And that’s what piques the interest of younger audiences who find The JetBeats’ throwback music fresh and different, band members say.“Most of these songs are meant to be played in a way that provokes a physical reaction to the music. Intellectually, there's not much going on, but on a primal level, this type of music lends itself to be very physical,” suggests Rutkauskas, a former member of the band The Northern Skies who teaches drumming and lives in the area of James Street and 144th Avenue. “Fast and loud is how it was done and I think that will always be a trigger for young people.”All of that keeps The JetBeats digging for old nuggets from that era to dust off and reintroduce to audiences in the New Millennium.“The research is never done. You always find something else that you’d never heard that’s just a great song,” Moallemian insists. “The main thing is the energy of that kind of music. It really is kind of punk rock. I think that’s what appeals to younger people.”It’s the sort of lively, straightforward and catchy vintage rock, says Jimenez, that gives musicians and fans the perfect excuse to “jump around, get nice and sweaty, and have fun with it.”— Find listings and news about West Michigan’s music scene at John Sinkevics’ Spins on Music, online at localspins.com.Email: jsinkevics@gmail.com